Some events are so big as to be hard to see properly. They are like holding an object up close against one’s eyes. So it is with the Chief Rabbi’s article in today’s Times.
He writes that –
We struggle to imagine a parallel.
Britain has no Chief Imam, but as though such a person were to advise voters not to back the Conservatives…in the context of Muslims considering emigration were the Party to win the election.
(A Survation poll published in the Jewish News found that “nearly half (47 per cent)” of British Jews polled said they would “seriously consider” emigrating if Jeremy Corbyn became Prime Minister
One does not have to believe all polls’ findings, or that all those quizzed in that case really would weigh up leaving in the event of a Labour victory, to view such a result as alarming.)
How has it come to this?
And now the Archbishop of Canterbury has weighed in (see above). This show of ecclesiastical support is significant. Perhaps we will also hear from the Archbishop of Westminster.
Over now to Yvette Cooper, Hillary Benn, Liz Kendall, Stephen Kinnock, Lucy Powell, Darren Jones, Jess Phillips…and Ed Miliband. Plus all the other 130 Labour politicians who attended the Future Britain Group’s launch.
They will presumably suggest that when push comes to shove the Conservative Party is a more important enemy than anti-semitism. If so, they belong in a lower circle of hell than even Corbyn.
“What will the result of this election say about the moral compass of our country?” the Chief Rabbi asks. Indeed.
And to those who reply that Corbyn simply can’t become Prime Minister, we point to a new poll published by ICM today.
It finds the Conservatives ahead by seven points – a lower recent total than other pollsters, and one that might be on the cusp of denying Boris Johnson a majority.
One does not have to view the poll as accurate – let alone as a forecast – to ask: can we be so sure of the election result with over a campaigning fortnight still to go?